Westborough library publishes trove of historical photos

Wednesday

Aug 9, 2017 at 10:19 PMAug 10, 2017 at 8:53 AM

Jim Haddadin Daily News Staff @JimHaddadin

WESTBOROUGH — It was a moment to remember.

Donning jackets, ties and dresses, members of Westborough High School’s Class of 1926 gathered for a group portrait. They filed into five neat rows, some standing, some sitting, legs crossed, hands on thighs, staring back at the camera.

It was a memento, perhaps, of their last days together in high school. But the 38 men and women in the photo could scarcely have imagined how long the image would endure.

The picture, owned by resident Debbie Ledoux, is among more than 90 cultural and historical artifacts that were recently added to the Westborough Public Library’s digital collections.

The library asked residents earlier this year to rummage through their homes to find items that speak to the town’s history, ranging from paper records and photographs to paintings, clothing and campaign memorabilia.

Dozens of people responded, bringing their ephemera to Town Hall to be preserved in digital form. The library recently published a trove of records collected during the event online, making them available to the public and helping shed light on Westborough’s 300-year history.

The records range from diplomas and Boy Scout uniforms to the head of an ax. A woman unearthed the metal piece while gardening in her backyard, Library Director Maureen Ambrosino said.

Another unique contribution was the family Bible of Ebenezer Parkman, who served in the 18th century as Westborough’s first pastor. Parkman’s notes can be seen scrawled in the margins.

“It was things that (residents) had that they didn’t maybe, necessarily, think were that significant,” Ambrosino said, “but they really are, and once we get them into our digital collection, people everywhere can have access to them.”

Ambrosino was inspired to pursue the project after another trove of historical records was discovered inside a vault at Town Hall.

The library retrieved a stack of wooden boxes from the building before it was renovated. Inside, they found records dating back to the 1800s — perhaps even earlier — describing Westborough’s history and participation in events such as the War of 1812.

“We looked at them to have them digitized,” Ambrosino said, “because we felt like this was really important pieces of our town history, and people who are researching these different time periods and their family history, this is stuff they should have access to.”

The library hired archivist Anthony Vaver to inspect and organize the material. While the work was underway, Ambrosino enrolled in a leadership course through the Public Library Association, and began brainstorming ideas to tap into the wealth of historical resources available in town.

With Westborough celebrating its 300th anniversary this year, Ambrosino came up with the idea of asking residents to bring cultural artifacts lying around their homes to the library to have them documented.

“I knew that if we found documents in the town vault, that people in town must have stuff — in their closet, in their attic, in a scrapbook — that would really contribute to our town’s history,” she said.

The library received a $12,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to carry out the project. Vaver was hired as a library employee, and the library purchased a high-end digital scanner to photograph each piece.

Then in February, the library invited residents to bring their objects to Town Hall, where experts in historic preservation sized them up and offered advice on keeping them in good condition.

Photographs were archived, and the library hired a photographer to take pictures of objects that didn’t sit flat on the scanner. To round out its program, the library invited a New England historian to review the images and describe how they fit into the broader context of the region’s past.

Ambrosino said the library plans to hold similar programs inside its local history room in the future.

“I think a lot of times we go through the day and we’re driving down the streets of our town, and you see the same historic looking houses every day,” Ambrosino said. “It just kind of becomes part of the landscape, but when you really look closely at these photographs, these documents, you get an understanding of how deep the history is in this part of the country.”

Jim Haddadin can be reached at 617-863-7144 or jhaddadin@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JimHaddadin

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